This work seeks to explore linguistic and cultural issues in cross-cultural communication under the oppression of the encroachment of the dominant language and culture. The artist has created a virtual world called MONDO, which consists of some well-known attractions of the world, through which the cultures of different countries are also represented.

In MONDO, “Civitano” (Esperanto for: citizens of the world) can live wherever they are interested and communicate with each other. The “Civitano” represents his or her country of origin and his or her cultural labels, such as history, culture, language, etc. The first task is to build the “Tower of Babel”. In order to build efficiently, all “Civitano” can only use one language, “Esperanto”. The use of Esperanto as the “primary language” in the work was accompanied by a consideration of its cultural legitimacy. The meaning of Esperanto in Chinese is directly translated as: the language of the world. Ironically, however, the grammatical rules of Esperanto are derived from Indo-European languages. In Esperanto, there is almost no trace of Asian languages, let alone Chinese. The work also uses the artist’s native language, Chinese, the language of her residence, German, and the current “dominant” language of the world, English. These four languages form a ” frame ” on four sides of the screen, suggesting that language differences limit intercultural communication.

This work as the first part of the trilogy provides the basic context and background, while the work itself serves as a form of irony, questioning some of the linguistic problems of current transnational intercultural migration, and even of globalization.

此作品試圖探討在主流語言文化侵蝕的壓迫下，跨文化交流中的語言和文化問題。藝術家創造了一個虛擬世界，名為MONDO。該世界由部分世界著名景點構成，藉由這些著名景點也對不同國家的文化進行了代表。

在MONDO中，“Civitano”（世界語，意為：世界公民）可以生活在任何其感興趣的地方並相互交流。 “Civitano”代表著其原籍國以及其文化標籤，例如歷史，文化，語言等，其首要任務是建造“通天塔”。為了高效構建，所有“ Civitano”只能使用一種語言，即“ Esperanto”（世界語）。作品在使用“世界語”在其中作為“主要語言”的同時也在考慮其文化上的合法性。世界語在中文中的意思直譯過來是：世界的語言。但具有諷刺意味的是，“世界語”中的語法規則都來自印歐語系。在”世界語“中，幾乎沒有亞洲語言的影子，更不用說中文了。作品中還使用了藝術家的母語-中文，她居住地所使用的語言-德語，以及目前的世界“主流語言”-英語。這四種語言在屏幕的四個側面形成了一個“框”，也暗示著語言的差異限制了跨文化交流。

該部作品作為三部曲的第一部提供了基本的語境和背景，同時該作品本身也作為一種反諷的形式，對於當下跨國跨文化移民中的，甚至是全球化進程中的部分語言問題進行了置疑。

ZHOU Yinglin is a video and new media artist based on time-based media and digital virtual technology, currently living and working in Berlin/Linz. She holds the title of Outstanding Master’s Graduate of University of the Arts Berlin and is a PhD candidate at the University of the Arts Linz. In recent years, the artist has been researching on identity, digital virtual space, and cultural equality, focusing on issues such as identity recognition, cultural identity displacement, post-colonial identity gaps; virtual digital construction and virtuality, image expression in virtual space, and spatial power in virtual space, and she proposes the possibility of a futuristic perspective for cultural equality. Zhou Yinglin’s works have a satirical and witty temperament and incisive political attributes based on the research nature, and her projects have condensed a great deal of reflection and analysis.

The artist has received awards such as “the Lumen Prize”, Shortlist; “Future Artist” of the Today Art Museum X InArt, first prize; Lentos Freunde Art Award, Shortlist; “Ruptopia” iART Youth Art Program, third prize; “SAP Art Award”, Emerging Artist prize; and “Upapāduka· the Prologue of Crypto Art”, third prize.

Her works have been exhibited in major national and international art institutions and exhibitions, recently at Ars Electronica Center Linz; Art Basel Hong Kong’s Film Program; UCCA Lab at Ullens Center for Contemporary Art; A4 Art Museum; 13th National Art Exhibition; and O21 OSTRALE Biennale, etc.